In Our Arms

It's been almost 16 months since I first saw her face and prayed over her picture....never believing that she would actually be here.  And yet, God, is all His wisdom knew.  She was to be our daughter.  After  13 months of paperwork and preparation, the day finally came when we got to hold our daughter for the first time.

It has been four weeks since that day when we met A for the first time.  We flew into her province 2 days before we were to meet her. We spent time with some wonderful new friends who took time out of their day to bless us by sharing lunch and a tour of the city.  Times we will cherish and be able to share with our daughter as she grows what it was like where she is from.  

Monday morning came and we were up early and on our way to the orphanage where we were led to a room which had a bunch of big comfy chairs lining the walls.  We said our "hellos" and immediately got to work signing papers, taking pictures and then it got quiet.  They could hear that A was on her way to our room.  We waited just a couple minutes, and then she was there.  We had no idea how she would react.  We were prepared for tears and much more.  But instead we got silence and no eye contact.  It was actually quite funny how far away she could turn her head....which you can kind of see in the picture above.  We finished signing papers, went back downstairs for the customary pictures and then ushered out the door to go get more pictures done and sign more papers.  It was in that car ride, though, when we were finally able to start making a connection....and when we learned that A loves to tickle.  When we were waiting for more paperwork, that's when we learned that A also loves to do hair...when she started twisting sections of my hair.  And does she ever have a strong grip!  And watch out!  If you move when you are not supposed to, you may get whacked in the head.   Our guides were amazed at how quickly she warmed up to us.  That evening, we just stayed in...getting to know each other....which is a bit of a challenge when neither of you knows each other's language.

I cannot wait to share more, but every moment right now is a little crazy and time to myself is scarce...so until then, here are a few more pictures from the first few days of our trip.

A walk around Yinchuan and lunch with some wonderful new friends....

 Neon colored baby chicks for sale...reminded me of buying a goldfish here in the states.

Our first experience with Hot Pot...

First moments together...

We are so blessed!  Thank you for your continued prayers as we adjust to all things new.

Trust in the Lord

Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart...wow!  That's big!  And yet that is what we are learning through this adoption.  We are not perfect and there are days when I still say, how God?  Where can we come up with this money?  We were done growing our family 16 years ago....and then after 2 adoptions we were done again. God had a different plan, and we are saying "yes" to His plan, even though it may not make sense.  We have a daughter in China and we are doing everything in our power to get her home.   Friends and family...You have helped raise almost $10,000 of the $16,000 remaining fees we have.  That is huge!!!   Thank you all so much for all of your support and donations.  If you would still like to be a part of our adoption story and help bring our little girl home, we have one week left in our Lifesong for Orphans Matching Grant fundraiser.  I have outlined here how you can help us with a donation.  Thank you!

Please keep checking back as hopefully, I will be posting pictures of us HOLDING our little girl soon!

Our Miracle

Miracles in our lives are so amazing, and I always want to write them down so that I remember.    God is good all the time, but moments are not always good. And in those hard moments I find that I really need to focus of the miracles and the good in my life from God.

Our miracle today....we are going to China!!!!!  We have a confirmed consulate appointment.  Despite the delays and the approaching holiday where all government offices in China close for a week, we are on our way.  We will be able to hold our daughter in 3 weeks!!  I cannot believe it.

Would you please continue to pray for us as we make travel arrangements, as we continue to prepare our children at home for the changes that are coming, for our daughter's heart as she also will be facing so many changes, and lastly, the financial aspect of it as we still owe quite a bit more?

Thank you for your prayers and for donating to our adoption.  We are blown away by your support!

Here are a couple more pictures of our little girl...can't wait to share some new ones!!!

Travel and Matching Grant Update

As some of you know, our Article 5 documents were not picked up last Tuesday 2/3 as they were scheduled to be.  When I didn't wake up to an email that morning saying that it was picked up, I knew.... and then we got the call that evening.  Delays.   This is one of the hardest things in the adoption process, but something we are very familiar with as we faced some big delays in our first adoption.  The consulate needed more information.  This is not a usual occurrence, but we were not the first family this has happened to.  So we needed to wait until the necessary information was acquired before our Article 5 could be picked up...which could be an additional 2 -10 days.  It has been 9 days AND we have article 5 pick-up...TODAY!!  The next step in our process is Travel Approval (TA) and then schedule a consulate appointment (CA).  

Sooooo.....When will we Travel?

Here are the details we know, for those of you who would like to try and figure this all out with us...basically, an educated guess as to when we travel. LOL.  The US Consulate (who issues our CA) is closed Monday for President's day and then also closed for Chinese New Year from Feb. 18 to Feb 25.  And the cccwa (who issues our TA) is also closed for CNY Feb. 18 to Feb. 25.  Because of all the holidays and closures, without a miracle, it does not look like we will be able to travel at the beginning of March.  There are positives in all this in that we will get to spend time with our bigs when they are home for their Spring Breaks in March, and I do miss them all so much!  Even though I am disappointed that we will not travel at what I thought would be the perfect time, and I don't understand, I'm choosing to trust God...He knows and understands and His ways are perfect.  

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord.

~Isaiah 55:8

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11

Just a little more info to help you...because of work, we need to be home 3/22 thru 3/28.  So what are your guesses?  When will we travel?

Update on our Matching Grant

We feel so blessed that so many have come along side us to help bring our little girl home.  With our matching grant through Lifesong for Orphans, we have raised $2500 of our needed $16,000.  WOW!  Thank you so much!!!

16 more days to help us get closer to our goal!!!  

Here is the information about our matching grant if you missed it.  We were blessed with a matching grant through Lifesong for Orphans and our church, Eastview Christian Church.  If you would like to make a donation towards helping bring our little girl home, there are two ways:

1. Donate online

    Located on the right side of our blog is a "donate" button that links directly to Lifesong for Orphans.

         This is a PayPal link and PayPal does charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction)  So your 

            donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

2. Give by check

    Please make checks payable to "Lifesong for Orphans".

     In the memo please note your gift preference with "Marcordes #4985"

     Please mail checks to:

     Lifesong for Orphans

     PO Box 40

     Gridley, IL 61744

Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative and fund-raising

costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to

the need…helping orphans.

Individual donations $50 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a taxdeductible

receipt. Receipts for donations under $50 will gladly be sent upon request.

Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization.

Thank you also for all your prayers.  Would you please continue to pray for God's timing and for our hearts as we all will have big changes in the near future?

I

New Pictures!!

We have been looking forward to our "final update" for a while now.  It has been 5 months since we got a picture of our little girl and 7 months since we have gotten an update on her size.  Seven months ago we were told she only weighed 26 pounds....tiny!!!  We got our email last night with new pictures and measurements!!  According to the report, our little girl now weighs 35lbs!  She is almost exactly the same size as Sunshine.  Now I can do a little shopping!!!  Fortunately, I will be able to take some of Sunshine's clothes too (which right now she is so excited about sharing her clothes just like her big sisters do...really hoping that excitement continues. LOL).  But travel is getting closer and we are so excited, nervous, excited...did I say nervous?!?!

Even though our "journey" began over a year ago when A's picture appeared in my inbox, our real journey begins when A is home.  We are so excited to finally get her home, to hold her and love her, to protect her and take care of her....JOY!  But there is another side of adoption that is hard.  We are taking our little girl away from all that she has ever known...for 6 years...sights, sounds, smells, people, food, etc.  Nothing will be the same for her and for her, that will be so hard.  As hard as I try to imagine how that must feel, there is no way I can know.  I don't know how she will react, but I do know she will grieve and I do know that there will be some time needed for her to learn that we are her mommy and daddy and we love her.  It will take awhile for her to trust us and this is why we must be the only ones who meet her needs for several months....the only ones who hug her, hold her, rock her, feed her, put her to bed, and so much more.  I will explain all that another time.  Right now, I want to rejoice in the fact that we are another week closer to bringing her home!  Our Article 5 should have been picked up today, and we hope to hear something about travel in the next 2 weeks.

Thank you all for your prayers and donations.  Your support is such a blessing to us!  Will you please continue to pray for us and our little girl?

And now to share some of our new pictures.....

Another Step Closer!!!

If you are here, more than likely you received our very late Christmas card in the mail or you saw my FB post...as not many people know this blog exists. I have to admit that I am not very good about blogging, but I am committed to at least share where we are in our adoption process so that those who are praying for us and/or have decided to donate in helping us bring our little girl home, can follow our journey.  Thank you so much for taking the time to look us up.  We are so excited about bringing home another little girl and hope that you will share in that excitement.

So here's our new news...Monday was MLK Day....no school, banks closed, no mail.  I was sad there would be no mail because we were waiting for our cable letter.  We need this to complete the next step towards bringing our little girl home.  Checked our email and...........we got an email from the NVC with a pdf of our cable letter....We could move to the next step!  So as is common routine with adoption...we hurried up and sent the letter to our agency so we could wait some more.  AHHHHH!   

Our next step is the Article 5 process, which allows our daughter to get a visa.  This step should take exactly 2 weeks from the time our documents are dropped off.  Drop-offs usually occur on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  I'm really hoping and praying our documents were dropped off yesterday, but our agency only gets notifications on Fridays,  and our social worker is out of the office for the rest of the week...so we will wait a few more days to find out.  

On August 24th our little girl celebrated her 6th birthday.  We were able to arrange to have a birthday cake sent to her and were blessed with some great pictures.  Thought I'd share some with you!

Isn't she the sweetest?!?!  This has been the longest wait and we are so ready to get her home.

We could really use your prayers on this last leg of our wait.  Would you please pray...

1. that we would get to travel at the beginning of March, as this would work the best for the care of our children at home while we are away.

2.  that our finances would all fall into place as we get closer to our last big payment.

3.  for our little girl's heart as she is faced with so many changes in her little life when we enter it. 

 

4. for our young one's at home...that they will be able to share mom and dad and know that this little one is not replacing them (a real fear for one of ours).

Finally, if you would like to help in bringing our little girl home, I have placed a "donate" button on the right side of our blog that links directly to our matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans. 

And last, but not least...today is our oldest daughter's 20th birthday!  How did that happen??   We love this girl to pieces and are so blessed by her!  We love you, Belle! You are beautiful on the inside AND the outside!

Getting Closer!

It's getting more and more real...we are getting closer to bringing our little girl home!  Today was our travel call with our agency.  It was scheduled for 1pm to 4pm.  I thought that surely it would not be that long.  What could they possibly talk about for three hours?!?!  BUT...it was and we received so much valuable information.   Not only did they walk us through the steps of what our trip would look like, but also what it might look like when we return home and the things we need to do when coming home.  I love being prepared and I feel more than prepared.  But I also know, from experience, that adoption can bring along all kinds of things that no one can ever prepare you for.

We received our I800 last Saturday and are now waiting for our cable letter....hoping it will come next week.  We are on the final stretch!  We also got word this week of our matching grant through Lifesong for Orphans.  Our church has partnered with Lifesong to provide an Adoption Matching Grant of $2000 to help bring our little girl home!

Christmas was so fun this year...having the big girls home from school for a month and our oldest home for a few days before he had to head back to prepare for his Bowl game....and then a trip to Miami for the Orange Bowl!   T-mac was playing in the Orange Bowl, and we were not going to miss it!  It took us 23 hours to drive down but was so worth it!  What an incredible experience to end the year on and they won!  So the year ended with fireworks...literally!  And the weather was incredible!  The little girls keep asking when we will get to go back...swimming in the ocean and a pool in the middle of winter will do that to you!

Fun times over the last month...